


Growing Pains (Are Keeping Me Up At Night)

by directorsharpie



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Ava has it a little rough, Coming of Age, F/F, Fluff, TW: Homophobia, but don't worry it gets better
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:29:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24634600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/directorsharpie/pseuds/directorsharpie
Summary: Sara Lance and Ava Sharpe met on the very first day of second grade. Ava had just moved to Star City with her parents and was finding it difficult to fit in at the new school, everybody already knew everybody and they each had their own friend group. But, Ava didn’t know anyone and she was too shy to speak to kids she didn’t know.At recess instead of going outside with the other kids, she stayed in the classroom. She sat in the reading corner, snuggled up on a beanbag, and continued reading a book that she had picked out the day before.She was almost finished with the book, she had just two pages left when she saw a girl sit down beside her.orAn Avalance coming of age story.
Relationships: Sara Lance/Ava Sharpe
Comments: 46
Kudos: 150





	1. One

Sara Lance and Ava Sharpe met on the very first day of second grade. Ava had just moved to Star City with her parents and was finding it difficult to fit in at the new school, everybody already knew everybody and they each had their own friend group. But, Ava didn’t know anyone and she was too shy to speak to kids she didn’t know. 

At recess instead of going outside with the other kids, she stayed in the classroom. She sat in the reading corner, snuggled up on a beanbag, and continued reading a book that she had picked out the day before. 

She was almost finished with the book, she had just two pages left when she saw a girl sit down beside her. She quickly glanced up from her book and over at the girl sitting beside her, before turning her attention back to her book. 

“Why are you sat here on your own? It’s recess, not silent reading time,” the girl said and Ava just ignored her and buried her head further into the book. “Do you not speak?” The girl questioned when Ava didn’t respond to her first question. 

“I don’t know anybody, so I don’t want to go outside,” Ava explained not taking her eyes off of the book once. The other girl looked at her with a slight frown on her face but she didn’t say anything else. Not until Ava had finished her book anyway. 

“I’m Sara, what’s your name?” She questioned and Ava hesitated for a moment. She was a little unsure of Sara’s intentions because at her last school nobody really spoke to her unless they were making fun of her. 

But when Sara looked at her with a soft smile on her face, it made Ava a little more comfortable around her. “I’m Ava,” she finally said and Sara looked at her with a toothy grin.

“Do you wanna come outside? You know me now, you can bring your book,” Sara offered and Ava’s face scrunched up in thought as she tried to decide whether to stay inside or go outside with Sara. “Or we can stay here if you want.”

“Can we stay here?” Ava asked and Sara nodded her head. She pulled her bean bag closer to Ava’s so that she could see what she was reading. 

“Where are the pictures? That looks boring,” Sara said, she read a few lines of the book but got bored when there were no illustrations for her to look at. 

“It isn’t boring, it’s good. It doesn’t need pictures because you have to use your imagination,” Ava explained but Sara was having none of it. 

“Boring, I know you can tell me about the characters and I can draw them,” Sara suggested and Ava seemed to brighten up a little at that suggestion. So that is exactly what they did, and they did that for the next few weeks until Sara got bored of doing the same thing every recess and persuaded Ava to go outside with her. 

“Ava look, can you do this?” Sara shouted she was upside down walking along the grass on her hands. She quickly got back on her feet when she couldn’t see Ava anywhere. Her friend was right in front of her a second ago laughing at her and telling her she looked funny upside down. But now she was nowhere to be seen. 

“Mrs. Lucas do you know where Ava is?” Sara questioned as she ran over to her teacher.

“She’s in the classroom sweetie,” Mrs. Lucas said and Sara nodded her head before running off into the classroom. She found Ava curled up on her usual beanbag with her nose buried in a book. 

“Are you okay?” Sara questioned softly and Ava just nodded her head, without lifting her eyes off of the book. 

“Yeah I’m fine I just don’t like being outside at recess, I tried to like it but I don’t,” Ava mumbled and Sara just nodded her head and pulled up a beanbag next to Ava and sat down on it. She glanced over at the book that she was reading but once again it had no pictures in it, so it didn’t interest Sara at all. 

“Do you wanna come to my house for dinner tonight? My sister is having a friend over so daddy said that I could invite somebody too,” Sara questioned and that got Ava’s attention away from her book. 

“I want to but I have to ask my mom first,” Ava said and she hoped that her mom would let her because she loved spending time with Sara. Most of their time spent together was filled with Sara telling Ava stories about her family and about some random dream that she had the night before, and for most of it, Ava stayed silent. But that’s why she liked Sara, she didn’t make her do things she didn’t like, she didn’t make her play outside with the other kids, she didn’t make her talk a whole lot. 

“Okay cool, we’re having pizza!” Sara said excitedly but paused for a moment when Ava didn’t match her excitement. “Do you like pizza?”

“I love pizza, we don’t get to have it a lot though because mom says it’s not healthy,” Ava said with a small frown on her face. 

“That sucks, we have pizza a lot, I think it’s because Dad can’t cook that well and Mom left so he just gets pizza,” Sara shrugged her shoulders.

“Where did your mom go?” Ava questioned, she was very concerned that her friend didn’t have a mom. 

“I don’t know, she left a long time ago so it’s just me, dad and Laurel,” Sara said and Ava nodded her head before turning her attention back to her book. 

Later that day, Ava’s mom agreed to let her go to Sara’s house for dinner and the two girls were ecstatic. Sara didn’t stop talking the whole way home, and when they got to the Lance household Sara got even more excited if that was even possible. She dragged Ava upstairs to show her, her bedroom. 

The walls were painted a light blue color, her bed was tucked away in the corner of the room and her toys were scattered all over the floor. That irritated Ava a little, she liked her toys to be put back in their proper places and she didn’t understand how Sara could just leave hers laying around on the floor. 

“Do you want to play dolls? I have some books if you want to read instead, but mine all have pictures in them so you probably won’t like them. I can ask Laurel if you can borrow one of her books?” Sara suggested but Ava shook her head and sat down on the carpeted floor next to Sara. 

“I want to play dolls,” Ava picked up the barbie doll with dark hair. Sara smiled at her softly before picking up a barbie doll with blonde hair, that had obviously been cut by Sara because the ends of her hair were jagged and some parts were much shorter than others. 

The two of them played with the dolls for what felt like hours, they made up a bunch of scenarios for them and laughed until their stomachs hurt. 

“Girls I’m ordering the pizza, Ava is there any specific toppings that you like?” Quentin poked his head around the door.

“I like cheese pizza,” Ava said softly, she suddenly went a little shy.

“Cheese? That’s so boring,” Sara said and Ava just frowned at her. 

“I don’t have pizza a lot, so I don’t know if I like other toppings,” Ava defended herself.

“Oh, we could have pepperoni and if you don’t like it you can pick it off, that’s what Laurel does,” Sara explained. 

Ava was about to agree with Sara but Quentin came up with a solution before she could say anything. “Ava you can share a cheese pizza with Laurel if you don’t want pepperoni, and Sara you share one with Laurel’s friend because she wants a pepperoni pizza, does that sound good?” he suggested and Ava nodded her head quickly with a tight-lipped smile on her face. 

Dinner was uneventful, it was just filled with Sara talking about whatever was on her mind at that moment. Most of the time was a bunch of nonsense that didn’t make much sense at all. 

Shortly after dinner was over, Ava’s mom came to pick her up from Sara’s house. When Ava excitedly asked if Sara could go over to their house for dinner the following week, the older woman nodded her head and Sara and Ava jumped up and down with excitement. From then on it sort of became a tradition that they spent Friday nights at one of their houses. 

Even when they reached middle school the tradition continued, except the dinners turned into sleepovers. They stayed awake most of the night just talking about anything and everything. 

One week Ava was being quieter than she usually was, so Sara took it upon herself to try and cheer her up. She tried not to question it too much because she knew that Ava would tell her what was wrong when she was ready to. 

It was pretty late and the two of them were laid on Sara’s bed in the dark, usually, at that point of the night, they were talking non-stop. But tonight was different, Sara was talking away like normal and Ava stayed silent, only humming in agreement when Sara said certain things. Sara sat up on the bed and leaned over Ava to turn the bedside lamp on. 

“Are you okay Aves? You’re being really quiet,” Sara asked softly and the moment Sara asked her if she was okay tears began to roll down her cheeks. 

“I’m fine,” Ava lied, she quickly wiped her eyes and rolled onto her side so that Sara couldn’t see her face, she pulled the covers up to her chin and closed her eyes.

Sara laid down next to her, she wrapped her arms around her best friend and just held her. 

After a while, Ava managed to calm down and she turned over to face Sara. The smaller blonde moved away from her to give her some space.

“What’s going on Aves?” Sara whispered, she tucked a strand of hair behind Ava’s ear and gently wiped a stray tear away with her thumb. 

“How did you realize that you like girls?” Ava questioned. Her voice sounded so small and so scared and Sara hated it. 

“Oh um,” Sara froze. She couldn’t tell Ava the real reason she realized that she was bisexual because it was because of Ava that she figured it out. She couldn’t really tell Ava that she fell in love with her because that meant that she could risk losing her best friend and that would be the worst thing in the world, so she decided to lie about it. “I guess it was because I had crushes on female celebrities as well as all of the male ones that everyone else obsesses over.”

She probably could have come up with a better fake story but Ava seemed to believe it. However, she quickly became more concerned over why she was asking Sara about this than whether her fake story was believable or not. 

“Why?” Sara questioned when Ava stayed silent. 

“I think I might have feelings for girls,” Ava whispered, even though it was just the two of them and Sara’s Dad and Sister were sleeping. She felt as though if she said it louder than that then it made it more real, and to Ava that was extremely scary. A lot scarier than just admitting it to her best friend. 

“Cool, that means we don’t have to talk about boys that much anymore because most of them suck anyway,” Sara said and that earned a chuckle from Ava. “So are you a lesbian? Or do you still like boys?” 

“I don’t like boys like that at all,” Ava said, she avoided saying the word lesbian because in the Sharpe household that was a bad word. Any time there were two women or two men in love on the tv both of her parents had a lot of, hateful, things to say about it. 

“Okay, it’s okay you know. There’s nothing wrong with it, and you know I’m always here for you right Aves?” Sara said and held her pinky out towards Ava. “Pinky swear.”

Sara kept that promise right up until they got to high school. She and Ava started to drift apart, no matter how hard they tried to hang out with one another it was difficult because their interests started to change. Sara grew to hate school, she ditched class a lot and hid under the bleachers with some boy called John Constantine. She also got a whole new group of friends who liked to call themselves the legends. 

Ava, on the other hand, loved school, from the second she started high school she was determined to become Valedictorian. She never missed a day of school, no matter how sick she felt sometimes.

However, high school was difficult for her. Not the academic part, but the social part. She felt like she was back in second grade, she had nobody. Except for this time Sara wasn’t going to come and sit with her every break and lunchtime. She had to face those alone. She had to face a lot of things alone, like the bullies that picked on her every opportunity they got. That’s why she tended to avoid the cafeteria, she brought her own lunch and ate it in the library. 

Sophomore year of high school got a little better for Ava. She got her first girlfriend, they didn’t go to the same school but they hung out a lot outside of school. One weekend they went to the mall together and found a photo booth. They took a bunch of pictures, and Ava kept the strip of pictures and used them as a bookmark. 

A few weeks later she took some books from her bag and the strip of photos fell out of one of the books and landed underneath the kitchen table. Ava didn’t realize that it had fallen out and she headed up to her room to go and do some homework. Around an hour later her dad was yelling her name from the bottom of the stairs. Ava was a little worried because he sounded very angry and he had never been angry at Ava before. 

She quickly forgot about her homework and went downstairs. When she entered the kitchen she was met with both of her parents sitting on one side of the table with something in front of them. As she got closer she realized that it was the pictures of her and her girlfriend. Her face dropped, the color left her skin and she felt as though she was going to throw up. 

“What is this Ava?” Her dad questioned and Ava stayed silent because she knew if she tried to speak then she would just end up crying. 

“Your father asked you a question, answer him,” her mom chimed in. 

“It’s just some pictures,” Ava mumbled as she stared down at her lap to avoid making eye contact with either of them. 

“Why are you kissing her?” Her dad questioned but before she had the chance to speak he spoke again. “Are you a lesbian?”

Ava continued to stare down at her lap and she didn’t answer his question. He didn’t like that because seconds later he slammed his fist down onto the table and asked the same question. 

“Yes I am,” Ava had tears rolling down her cheeks and when she admitted that she was a lesbian her dad shot up from his chair and began to pace up and down the room before he sat back down. 

“We raised you better than that Ava, it’s disgusting. Your whole life we have given you everything you could ever want and need and this is how you repay us? You know what, just get out I don’t want to look at you right now, no daughter of mine is going to be a lesbian, get out of my house, you can come back when you’ve got your head straight,” he said and Ava’s head snapped up to look at him. 

“What? Dad no, you can’t. Where am I supposed to go? I’m still me I haven’t changed, I’m still your daughter,” Ava said through sobs.

“You should have thought about that when you decided that you were going to ruin this family, get out of my sight.”

“Mom please,” Ava’s voice trembled, she was terrified that this would happen if they found out, she had pictured her coming out to her parents so many times and she knew that it would end in some form of disagreement. But, she didn’t imagine it to be this bad, she thought that they would just argue over it a little but that they would eventually come round to the idea of it. 

“Your father told you to leave Ava,” her mom said and she didn’t even look at her as she said it. 

She didn’t see any point in arguing with them over it, they were clearly set with their decision and nothing was going to change their minds. She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes and rushed upstairs and grabbed the biggest duffel bag she had and tried to fit as much of her stuff into it as possible. 

Once the bag was full she ran out of the house and didn’t look back, it was only when she got to the end of the street that she realized that she had absolutely nowhere to go. She had no friends and her girlfriend’s parents were equally as homophobic as her own parents so that was a no go. 

She wandered around the streets for a little while longer letting her feet take her wherever they wanted to go. 

That’s how she ended up on the Lance’s doorstep. Before she could stop herself she brought her hand up and softly knocked on the door. Seconds later the door swung open to reveal Laurel Lance. 

“Ava? Are you okay?” Laurel asked with genuine concern in her voice and Ava tried to hold the tears back she really did but she couldn’t do it. She broke down into tears and she felt some arms wrap around her hugging her tightly. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

Laurel led her into the living room and sat her down on the couch, she took her bag off of her and placed it on the chair in the corner of the room. The older Lance sister sat down opposite Ava and pulled her into another hug. She knew why Ava was there she didn’t need to know the details, she had known that Ava’s parents are homophobic from the moment she came out to her a few years ago. But she didn’t think that they were that homophobic that they would just abandon their own daughter. 

Ava sent a quick text to her girlfriend to tell her what had happened, the next text she received from her was a breakup text and then suddenly she was blocked from texting or calling her. Laurel spent the rest of the night trying to comfort Ava, she made her favorite tea and ordered pizza for the two of them. It helped a lot, Laurel suggested that Ava help her study to try and keep her mind off of everything because from what she had heard from Sara, Ava loved school and she studied at every opportunity she got. 

They had been studying for almost two hours and were just about to wrap it up when Sara arrived home with a couple of friends. That’s when it hit Ava that she was stupid to come here, they weren’t friends anymore. She didn’t need to dump all of her problems on Sara and her family. 

“Ava?” Sara froze as she entered the living room and saw her ex-best friend sitting on the couch. Ava jumped up and moved to grab her bag off of the chair in the corner of the room. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t know why I came here, I’m just gonna go,” Ava said. 

“Ava wait!” Laurel called after her but Ava just ignored her and walked out of the front door, closing it gently behind her. “Go and talk to her Sara, she needs you right now, she has nobody else,” Laurel said and that’s all Sara needed to know. Like her sister she knew exactly why Ava was there so she told Zari and Amaya that she would be back soon and they can stay if they want to before she rushed out of the door after Ava. 

Sara practically sprinted down the driveway when she saw Ava sitting on the edge of the sidewalk outside of her house. “Ava,” Sara said softly when she reached her. “Do you mind if I sit with you?” Ava shook her head and Sara took that opportunity to sit down beside her. 

The air between them was silent until she heard muffled sobs coming from Ava. She had her head buried in her knees, and her body shook slightly as she cried. Sara’s hand hovered over Ava’s upper back, unsure of whether she should touch her. Her mind was quickly made up when another sob wracked through Ava’s body, she wrapped her arm around her and pulled her close to her. 

“It’s gonna be okay Aves,” Sara whispered and for a second it felt like everything was back to normal. It felt like she had her best friend back. She shook the thought from her head when she realized that Ava didn’t need Sara reminiscing the old times right now, she just needed somebody to be there for her. 

“They kicked me out Sara,” Ava mumbled once she was able to calm down. “They found a picture of me kissing a girl and that was it for them they just told me to leave, and my girlfriend, well ex-girlfriend now, she got scared that her parents would find out about us and told me to never speak to her again, I have nobody left Sara and I don’t know what to do,” Ava managed to keep the tears at bay this time. Sara wrapped both arms around her and just held her close, as she used to whenever Ava was upset during their friendship.

“That’s not true, you have me, you have Laurel and my dad,” Sara paused for a moment, “I know I haven’t been the best friend to you for the past couple of years but like I promised you when you first came out to me, I’m always going to be here for you no matter what Aves.”

“Thank you,” Ava whispered and she finally relaxed a little in Sara’s arms, she leaned her head on her shoulder and they sat in a comfortable silence for a short while. “You should probably go back to Zari and Amaya, I’m sorry for ruining your night.”

Sara pulled away from her so that she could look at Ava. “You didn’t ruin anything Ava, come on let’s go back inside it’s getting a little cold out here.” Sara stood up and held her hand out to help Ava stand up. She leaned down and grabbed Ava’s bag for her and the two of them headed back inside the house. 

Ava spent the rest of the night sitting in the living room with Sara, Zari, and Amaya. They made sure that she was okay and they included her in all of their conversations. She was able to forget about everything that had happened with her parents for a couple of hours. Eventually, she fell asleep curled up on the couch, so Sara grabbed a blanket for her and Amaya and Zari left shortly after that. Sara sat with her on the couch, just in case she woke up, the last thing she wanted was for Ava to be alone. 

When Quentin arrived home from work it was almost midnight, he crept around the house trying to be quiet because he expected his daughters to be asleep and he didn’t want to wake them. But, the light seeping through the doorway to the living room told him otherwise. He opened the door and was met with Laurel sitting on the armchair in the corner of the room, Sara was curled up on one end of the couch and Ava on the other. 

“Hey dad,” Laurel said, her voice was thick with tiredness and she was struggling to keep her eyes open as she stared at the TV screen. 

“Hey, baby, what is-” before he had the chance to finish his question, Laurel stood up from the chair and the two of them headed to the kitchen. She sat down at the table and Quentin followed suit. “Is Ava okay? What is she doing here?”

Laurel explained everything to her father, and by the time she had finished telling him what had happened his face was red with anger. He shot up from the chair and rushed towards the front door, he grabbed his keys and slammed the door shut behind him. 

“What’s going on?” Sara appeared in the hallway, and Laurel told her to go back to Ava before she followed their dad outside. 

“Dad wait, where are you going?” Laurel caught the car door before Quentin could close it.

“I’m going to give her parents a piece of my mind, how can they just abandon their daughter like that?” Quentin said and the anger was written all over his face. 

“Dad no, that is only going to make it worse, think about Ava. I know you’re mad, so am I, but right now all she needs is to be there for her,” Laurel said and Quentin turned the car engine off and slowly got out of the car. 

“You’re right,” Quentin said and the two of them headed back into the house. Laurel said her goodnights and headed up to bed, Quentin followed her upstairs. He went to check on Sara and Ava, the two of them were sound asleep on Sara’s bed. He closed the door behind him and headed to bed himself.


	2. two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It took a little bit of time but, Ava managed to fall into a new routine along with the Lances. 
> 
> She found it quite difficult at first, she was an only child so she had to learn how to share her space with two other girls. Quentin was more often than not working, and he had his own bathroom and stuff so she didn’t really struggle with having him around. 
> 
> She managed to work around everyone pretty well, but mornings in the Lance household was usually complete and utter chaos. 
> 
> “Sara hurry up! I need to shower,” Laurel yelled as she slammed her hand against the bathroom door. 
> 
> or
> 
> Sara and Ava start to get to know each other once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter, just a warning this chapter involves a scene where Ava's mom is very critical of her weight if that is something that makes you uncomfortable or you find it triggering in any way skip the part in between the stars.

It took a little bit of time but, Ava managed to fall into a new routine along with the Lances. 

She found it quite difficult at first, she was an only child so she had to learn how to share her space with two other girls. Quentin was more often than not working, and he had his own bathroom and stuff so she didn’t really struggle with having him around. 

She managed to work around everyone pretty well, but mornings in the Lance household was usually complete and utter chaos. 

“Sara hurry up! I need to shower,” Laurel yelled as she slammed her hand against the bathroom door. 

“If you keep yelling at me that means I have to stop what I’m doing and respond to you, that is just going to make me slower,” Sara’s voice was slightly muffled through the bathroom door, but Laurel heard her loud and clear. The oldest Lance sister let out a frustrated groan and began pacing up and down the hallway outside of the bathroom. 

“Morning,” Ava said with a soft smile on her face as she emerged from her bedroom (that was once the guest bedroom). She was already fully dressed and ready for the day. 

“Morning, you’re ready early,” Laurel said when she noticed the books in Ava’s arms and the backpack over her shoulder.

“Yeah, I wanted to get into school early so I could go over my presentation one last time,” Ava explained.

“Oh, good luck!” Laurel exclaimed but before Ava could respond the bathroom door opened and Laurel ran into the room shoving Sara out of the way in the process. 

“Morning, why are you ready so early? Shit did I sleep in again?” Sara said with a hint of panic in her voice, she was on her last warning if she was late to school one more time that semester she was going to have weeklong detention. 

“No, I have a presentation today and I want to go over it before school starts,” Ava explained once again and Sara just nodded her head. 

Things were still slightly awkward between the two of them, they had once been so close but since their friendship ended they had grown into completely different people. Ava was a lot more closed off than she had ever been the entire time Sara had known her, and over the month that Ava had been living with them, Sara learned that Ava didn’t discuss her feelings with anyone she kept them bottled up inside until she finally hit breaking point. 

“Give me five minutes to change and I’ll drive you,” Sara offered.

“You don’t have to do that, you haven’t even eaten breakfast yet,” Ava argued and Sara just waved her off before disappearing into her bedroom. Ava made her way downstairs and put two slices of bread in the toaster, once they popped up she spread some butter on them and waited for Sara to emerge downstairs. 

“I made toast, here,” Ava held it out in front of her and Sara accepted it gratefully. 

She took a large bite of it, “thank you, Aves, come on let’s go,” she said with her mouthful of toast. Ava scrunched her nose up in slight disgust but followed her out of the door to the car anyway. 

The drive to school only took around ten minutes. The entire time Ava sat in the passenger seat reading through her flashcards, Sara glanced over at her every now and then with a soft smile on her face. 

She had never met anybody who cared about school as much as Ava Sharpe. Even when they were younger she can’t recall a day where Ava was ever not there, okay maybe there were a handful of days throughout their entire friendship where Ava was off sick. But, when she entered high school she made it her own personal goal to not miss a single day and so far she was achieving that goal. 

Ava mumbled something under her breath as she read through one of the cards. 

“You’re gonna do great you know,” Sara said in an attempt to calm Ava’s nerves. 

“I hope so, I need it to go well, it’s like half of my grade for that class,” Ava said as they pulled into a parking space, she quickly put her things away and climbed out of the car. 

“It will, you have been working so hard on it,” Sara said. The two of them walked side by side towards the entrance. 

The place was empty. There were no students around and the hallways were almost completely silent, apart from the janitors doing some last-minute jobs. 

“Do you want me there when you go through it? It might help calm your nerves a little,” Sara suggested and Ava hesitated with her response. On one hand, it made perfect sense and it would most definitely help calm her nerves. On the other hand, she and Sara weren’t exactly that close still and Ava found herself a little nervous around her because she didn’t want to do or say anything wrong. 

“Yeah, I think that will help, thank you,” Ava said with a shy smile on her face. 

The two of them grabbed some things from their lockers and found an empty classroom that Ava could practice in. 

She ran through her presentation without a single mistake. But that didn’t seem to stop her nerves. Her palms were slightly sweaty and her heart was pounding so hard in her chest she was a little worried that Sara could hear it from where she was sitting at the desk. 

“That was great!” Sara exclaimed causing a light blush to work its way onto Ava’s cheeks. 

“Thank you.”

“Seriously, I don’t know why you’re so nervous about it, it’s perfect I think you’re gonna do amazing,” Sara said and it only made the pink on Ava’s cheeks darken. Her face was on fire, she ducked her head down slightly to try and get her hair to cover her cheeks but it didn’t really work Sara saw how red her cheeks were and let out a soft chuckle. 

Shortly after that Sara received a text from Zari, “Z is here, do you mind if I go and meet her, or do you need me here still?”

“No, uh go ahead, I’ll see you tonight, thank you for doing this I appreciate it,” Ava said with the same shy smile still on her face. 

“It’s no problem, and try not to worry too much Ava, you’re gonna kill it,” Sara said as she grabbed her bag, and before Ava could respond the smaller girl had already left the room. 

She didn’t know why a wave of disappointment suddenly rushed over her, she and Sara weren’t exactly friends again, Sara was just speaking to her again because Ava lived with her. Despite knowing that, she still felt a little upset that she had gone, it was nice just hanging out with her again. But, she didn’t have time to dwell on it because it was almost time to go to class. She packed her things away and put the flashcards back into the correct order and headed to homeroom. 

As per usual she was the first one to arrive, she took her usual seat and just read over the flashcards once more. At that point, she felt as though she was a little over-prepared, but she was still very nervous, and reading through the cards helped to dissipate it a tiny bit. 

Homeroom went by way too fast for Ava’s liking and before she knew it she was standing up in front of her entire English class. She took a deep breath and began the presentation, the longer she talked the more confident she felt, and then it was over and her teacher looked very impressed. 

After that, the rest of the day seemed to fly by, and soon enough it was lunchtime. Ava walked through the hallways towards the library, where she always ate her lunch and did some work. It was always fairly empty meaning that Ava could always sit at her usual table alone, with nobody there to bother her. 

Her first month or so at high school, after she and Sara stopped speaking, she tried to eat in the cafeteria like everyone else but it felt awkward and she felt as though everyone was staring at her because she’s only one in the whole room who was eating alone. That’s when she decided to move to the library to eat her food. It was perfect because she could do all of her homework and there was nobody there to make her feel uncomfortable. 

She made her way to the back of the library, towards her usual table but she came to a sudden halt when she saw Sara sitting there already with her phone in her hand and a sandwich in the other. The initial shock wore off and it was replaced by the sweaty palms that she had earlier that day and the pounding heart, she took a deep breath and had an internal debate about whether she should turn around and find a new table or just go and sit with Sara. 

However, her decision was made for her when Sara looked up from her phone and smiled at her. Her smile was big and it made her eyes light up, it made Ava feel all warm inside because nobody had been that happy to see her in a long time. She tightened her grip on the straps of her backpack and joined Sara at the table. 

“Hi,” Ava said quietly, she sat down and pulled her lunch out and placed it on the table, along with her water bottle, a notebook, and a few pens. 

“Hey, how did your presentation go?” 

“It went well I think? The teacher seemed pretty happy with it once I was done. But, I guess I won’t know until I get the grade back for it,” Ava had managed to push the thought of the presentation to the back of her mind but now that she was reminded of it she was suddenly thinking about all of the little things that she did wrong and all of the things that she could have changed. 

“I’m sure you did great Aves, you need to have more faith in yourself, you’re like one of the smartest people I know,” Sara said and just like that the blush was back on Ava’s cheeks. “I mean it, it’s sometimes scary how smart you are.”

“I’m not that-” Ava started but stopped speaking when she saw the look she was receiving from Sara. 

“Don’t even finish that sentence,” Sara said with a smile on her face as she held her index finger close to Ava’s lips. 

Ava looked down at her finger and then back up at Sara and their eyes locked onto one another’s. Both of them had matching smiles on their faces and the whole thing felt so familiar to them. It brought back memories of their friendship before high school. However, Ava was brought back to the harsh reality that they weren’t close like that anymore and she had convinced herself that Sara was only tolerating her because they lived together. 

Ava cleared her throat and moved to shuffle the papers in front of her. 

“I have homework, do you mind if I do it?” Ava questioned softly and Sara shook her head. 

“No go ahead, I just want to spend some time with you, this place is weirdly comforting, I see why you like it so much, the cafeteria is so loud all the time,” Sara rambled on as Ava looked at her with a smile on her face. 

A warmth spread across Ava’s chest as she listened to Sara ramble on. Since moving in with the Lance family she and Sara hadn’t really had the opportunity to talk, and at school, Sara had her own friends to worry about so in between that and soccer practice for Sara there wasn’t much time to get to know one another again. 

So just sitting opposite one another in silence felt nice and comforting. It gave Ava a surge of happiness because for the first time in over three years she wasn’t eating her lunch alone and that on its own felt like the best thing in the world to her. 

Ava glanced up from her notebook at Sara who was leaning back on her chair looking through her phone again. She eventually put it down and grabbed her own notebook from her bag, along with a history textbook. Ava was a little shocked at first to see Sara doing work voluntarily, but then again she wasn’t really because she knew how smart Sara was and how much effort she actually put into her school work. 

The lunch period flew by and the next thing they knew was the loud shrill of the bell ringing, followed by the sound of feet shuffling through the hallways. Ava’s eyes went wide and she tried to pack her things away as quickly as she possibly could when she realized that for the first time in a long time she wasn’t in class before the bell had rung. 

“Woah, Ava relax the bell went off like two seconds ago you aren’t going to be late,” Sara said with amusement clear in her voice. That didn’t stop Ava though, she carried on putting her things away at lightning speed before slinging her backpack over her shoulder. She was about to leave the library when she realized that she should probably wait for Sara. 

“Sorry, I just- I’m usually in class already, it makes me a little nervous when I have to walk in when everybody is already sitting at their desks, it’s lame I know,” the words tumbled from Ava’s mouth and the slight smirk on Sara’s face was replaced with a small frown. 

“Let’s go then,” Sara said before grabbing onto Ava’s hand and started running out of the library and through the hallways. The initial confusion wore off and Ava had a huge smile on her face as she ran behind Sara towards her next class. 

“There, you’re here after the bell and yet you’re the first one here,” Sara gestured towards the classroom with her hand. 

“Thank you, and thank you for lunch, it was nice to have somebody else there with me for once,” Ava said with a chuckle, she tried her best to hide the slight sadness in her voice when she thought about all of the times she had to eat alone and she didn’t miss the sad expression flash across Sara’s features. 

The smaller blonde quickly composed herself and replaced the sad frown with a soft smile, “I enjoyed it, besides I managed to get my homework done so I’m free tonight we can watch a movie or something?” Sara suggested and it made something in Ava’s stomach twist. She wasn’t sure if it was happiness or nerves. Probably both, she thought. 

“Yeah, I would like that, I’ll see you at home.”

With that, Sara nodded and turned on her heel. She made her way down the hallway and once she was out of view Ava finally went into the classroom. 

The rest of the day seemed to go by incredibly slowly. Every time Ava looked up at the clock, it felt as though hours had passed when in reality it had only been ten minutes. 

When the day finally did end, she walked home with a little more spring in her step than usual. She had originally planned to go home and study for the entire evening, but spending time with Sara was a lot more exciting than what she had planned. 

She arrived home and found Quentin sitting in the living room with the TV on but he didn’t look as though he was actually paying attention to it. 

“Hey, Ava how was school?” He questioned when he noticed that she had walked through the door. 

“It was good, the day felt a little long though.” 

“Oh, hey Ava is Sara not with you?” Laurel questioned as she walked into the living room. 

“No, I think she has soccer practice,” Ava said and Laurel nodded her head slowly as her mouth dropped open slightly when she remembered what day of the week it was. 

“We’re having pizza for dinner, is that okay?” Quentin asked and Ava nodded her head immediately. 

Since moving in with the Lances Ava quickly learned that Friday nights were still reserved for Pizza. It made it even better that Quentin still remembered her order, albeit it was only a cheese pizza, it still meant a lot to her that he remembered that about her. 

Sara arrived home shortly after Quentin ordered the food and she went straight up to the bathroom, only coming back down when the pizzas arrived. Her hair was slightly damp and tucked behind her ears, she was wearing some sleep shorts with a white tank top. It showed off her perfectly toned arm and leg muscles. 

Ava struggled to tear her eyes away from the smaller blonde. She looked beautiful, Ava thought. Even though she had no makeup on and her hair was slightly messy, she still managed to look amazing. Ava quickly shook the thoughts from her head, she didn’t want to spiral with them because there’s a possibility that she could let something slip and that would mess everything up, and she definitely didn’t want that to happen. 

“Have you decided on what movie you wanna watch?” 

“How about Peter Pan?” Ava teased, referring to their time in middle school when Sara played Peter Pan and caught a case of stage fright. 

“Don’t even joke about that,” Sara said as she held her finger up against Ava’s lips. The taller girl let out a loud laugh at the memory. 

Laurel watched the two of them, from her spot on the opposite couch, with a knowing smile on her face. It was a little weird to watch the two of them interact after so long, but it was also nice to see them reconnect and it looked as though they had just picked up from where they left off. 

The teasing and jokes between them were oddly comforting for Ava too because it was something that she hadn’t really had with another person since she and Sara lost touch. She never had that kind of relationship with her parents that she could joke around with them, they were very strict with her, and most of the time her father was working and her mother did everything she could to avoid having a real conversation with Ava.

Ava quickly shook the thoughts of her parents from her head and focused on the girl in front of her, who was laughing along with her sister at something Laurel had said, but Ava was too caught up in her own head to hear it. 

Shortly after that, the pizza’s arrived and the four of them sat around the kitchen table and ate. 

“Thank you for this,” Ava said before picking up a slice of the cheese pizza. 

“It’s no problem Ava, next Friday you can choose the takeout,” Quentin said and that made Ava a little excited because all her life her mother drilled the idea that takeouts were damaging and made you gain weight, into her head. 

*

That was a big thing with her mother, she made sure that Ava never gained weight. Every time Ava so much as suggested that they eat something a little unhealthy, her mom acted as though someone had just told her that the world was going to explode. 

The first time that she had stayed over at Sara’s house when they were younger, she let it slip that they had ordered a pizza and her mom almost fell over. That was the first time that she had ever seen her angry. She made Ava do extra exercise after that to make sure that she didn’t gain any more weight. That was also the first time Ava remembers feeling insecure about herself, her mom made her feel as though if she gained a little weight then the world would collapse into itself. 

But, Ava thought that this was normal behavior. She thought that every mother in the world was like that because she had never known any different. It wasn’t until she stayed over at the Lances for the first time that she realized that the way her parents acted around her, was anything but normal. 

*

“Ava? Are you good?” Sara questioned with a concerned look on her face. 

Ava shook her head slightly to bring herself back to reality. “Oh, uh, yeah. I was just in my own world,” she forced a chuckle out to try and lighten the mood but Sara wasn’t convinced. Even after almost four years, Sara could still see right through her. 

“Okay,” Ava was thankful that Sara didn’t push it any further, but she had a look in her eye that told Ava that she was going to have to talk about it later. 

They finished eating in comfortable silence, and once everything was cleaned away Ava and Sara made their way upstairs to Sara’s room after changing into their pajamas. Sara flopped down onto the bed and grabbed her laptop from the end of the bed. She got herself comfortable with her back resting against the headboard and her laptop was resting on top of her thighs. Ava joined her on the bed, but she sat kind of on the edge of it with her back straight and her feet still planted firmly on the floor. 

“Ava you can sit back you know,” Sara chuckled causing a light blush to creep up Ava’s neck. Sara patted the empty space next to her to try and get Ava to relax a little. 

Ava slowly moved to sit beside Sara, leaving a gap between them that was big enough for another person to sit there, with her back resting against the headboard. Her shoulders were rigid and her hands were clasped together and resting on top of her stomach. When Sara realized that she wasn’t going to move any closer to her, she shuffled sideways closer to Ava so that their shoulders were touching.

The second Sara’s bare arm made contact with Ava’s, goosebumps rose up on Ava’s arm and she shivered a little at the feeling. 

“Are you cold?” Sara questioned and Ava panicked a little bit, not wanting to tell her touch caused them. She just nodded her head.

“A little yeah,” Ava lied and Sara placed the laptop at the end of the bed and jumped over Ava, she grabbed a blanket from the chair in the corner of the room and draped it over Ava. 

“There you go, is that better?” Sara asked and Ava just nodded her head again. 

They settled back onto the bed and Ava finally let herself relax a little more when she had the blanket wrapped around her. 

“See anything you like the look of?” Sara questioned as she scrolled through the selection of movies on the screen. 

“No, not reall-” Ava cut herself off with a soft gasp when she saw Love, Simon on the list. 

“What?” Sara looked a little worried at Ava’s sudden gasp. She glanced over at her and then followed her eye line. “Oh, do you wanna watch that?”

Ava suddenly looked a little shy, “if you want to, I wanted to go and see it at the movies but I was scared that somehow my parents would find out and connect the dots so I just never went.”

“Then it’s settled, we’re watching it, you’re gonna love it.”

Ava had an excited smile on her face as she rose her eyebrows slightly. The movie began to play and Sara shuffles impossibly closer to her before grabbing the edge of the blanket and put it over herself as well. 

They were halfway through the movie and Ava was so enthralled by it that she didn’t even hear the knock at the front door followed by Quentin shouting Sara’s name. She only registered it when Sara paused the movie and went downstairs to find out what Quentin wanted. 

Moments later Sara came back into the room with her friends following close behind her. The excitement Ava had felt from watching the movie quickly disappeared and it was replaced with a twinge of sadness. She had enjoyed spending time with Sara and now that her friends were there it was over. 

Ava pulled her knees up to her chest and kept quiet as she watched them all find a spot in the room to sit down. Sara sat back in her original spot with Zari sprawled out at the end of the bed. Charlie was sitting on the floor next to the bed along with Behrad, Nora, Ray, Nate, and Amaya. Jax had taken over the chair in the corner of the room and John was perched against Sara’s desk. 

“Oh, hi Ava!” Ray said, his voice entirely too cheery for Ava’s liking. She had finally managed to get comfortable with Sara sitting so close to her and then she was pulled away from her and now she was surrounded by a bunch of people she barely knew. 

Multiple conversations began around her, it was a harsh reminder that Sara was just being nice and including her because she had to. The second her friends appeared she didn’t care for Ava, or at least that’s how it felt. She quietly got up from the bed and slipped out of the room without anyone noticing. They were all too wrapped up in their conversations. 

The second her bedroom door shut behind her she let out a deep breath, feeling as though she could breathe again. She slumped down onto her bed and curled up into a ball, feeling quite sorry for herself. She had had a good night. It had been one of the best nights she had, had in a while and it was ruined. 

She laid on her side staring at the wall for around ten minutes until she finally moved to grab her own laptop from her desk. She got herself comfy under the covers and put her headphones on when she heard a soft knock at the door. 

“Ava? Are you okay? You just left,” Sara’s muffled voice came from the other side of the door. 

Ava threw the covers back and took her headphones off of her head. She laid them on top of her laptop and moved to open the door. 

“Yeah I’m good, I just got tired,” Ava lied. 

“Oh, we’re gonna watch a horror movie if you want to join us?” Sara asked with a hopeful glint in her eyes. Ava considered it for a moment, before remembering how awkward and out of place she had felt when Sara’s friends were in the room. 

“No, I’m gonna try and get to sleep, thanks for the offer though,” Ava said with a tight-lipped smile. A hint of sadness washed over Sara’s face, but she quickly composed herself, she cleared her throat and stood up a little straighter. 

“Okay, if you do end up wanting to join us the offer is still there, night Ava,” Sara said and turned on her heel to go back to her own bedroom. 

Ava closed her bedroom door, she resumed her original position on the bed with her headphones on and her laptop beside her. She turned so that she was laying on her side and the screen was in line with her face on the empty spot of the bed beside her. She couldn’t find where Sara had played Love, Simon from so she bought it from Amazon and resumed where they left off.


	3. three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, apologies for the late update, I was moving house and didn't have wifi until today :(

The weekend flew by. It consisted of Sara hanging out with her friends almost the entire time, Quentin was at work and Laurel was with Tommy. 

Ava’s first class on Monday morning was chemistry and as she took her seat towards the front of the room she noticed an unfamiliar blonde girl standing beside the teacher awkwardly. 

They waited for everyone to take their seats and the teacher finally spoke up. “This is Felicity Smoak, it’s her first day at the school so be kind to her and help her out as much as you can,” he finished announcing to the class. “You can go and sit beside Ava,” he said a lot quieter to Felicity. 

The girl nodded her head and made her way over to the desk where Ava was sitting. She sat down next to her and began to unpack her things from her bag. Once she had done that the teacher went over what they were going to be doing, it involved working in pairs and Ava suddenly felt anxious about having to work with a complete stranger. 

The teacher stopped speaking and the people around them began talking to one another. Ava looked up from her notes and found Felicity looking at her with an awkward smile on her face. 

“Sorry I didn’t mean to stare, I just- this is all so new and I have no idea what we’re supposed to be doing at my old school we never really got to do experiments so, also your hair is wonderful, how do you get it to look like that,” Felicity brought her hand up and gestures towards Ava’s hair. 

Ava was a little speechless, she had never met anyone who talked as much as Felicity did in the first meeting. 

“I don’t know it just does it,” Ava chuckled referring to the question about her hair. “But the experiment is quite easy when you get the hang of it, I’ll show you,” Ava said and Felicity nodded her head and followed Ava around the room as she collected everything that they would need. 

Ava talked her through the entire process and explained why she was doing certain things. Felicity picked it up fairly quickly so they ended up working together for the rest of the class. 

“What class do you have next?” Felicity questioned, Ava took her schedule out of her bag and handed it over to Felicity as she packed her things away. “Oh! We have the exact same schedule, do you mind if I walk with you to the next class, I have no idea where I’m going.”

“Of course, let’s go.”

The two of them headed to their next class and all of the ones that followed seemed to pass very quickly and soon enough it was lunchtime. They left the classroom and Felicity remembered seeing the cafeteria area earlier that morning so she began to head in the general direction of it. 

What she didn’t realize was that Ava headed in the opposite direction. It wasn’t until she turned to look at her when she didn’t respond to something that she had said, that she realized she wasn’t there. She stopped walking and turned to look for Ava. Luckily for her, Ava was tall and she spotted the back of her head as she walked through the hallways opposite to where everyone else was going. 

“I thought the cafeteria was that way,” Felicity said, slightly out of breath as she came up to Ava’s side. 

“It is,” Ava carried on walking. 

“Oh, where are you going then?” 

“I don’t like to eat in the cafeteria, I usually go to the library.”

“Oh, okay, do you mind if I sit with you and your friends? I don’t know anybody else here,” Felicity asked, the words tumbled out of her mouth and Ava just nodded her head. 

She couldn’t help but feel a little giddy at the fact that for the second time in a row she wasn’t eating alone. “Yeah sure,” Ava tried her best to sound smooth and hide the fact that she wasn’t excited over it. 

The last thing she wanted was for Felicity to find out that the majority of the school avoid her and think that she’s some sort of freak because she doesn’t have any friends. 

Ava led the way and found her usual table at the back of the library. Felicity followed her and they sat down at the empty table, Ava began to unpack her things as Felicity glanced around the almost empty area, before finally deciding to get her own lunch out. 

“Is it uh- is it always this quiet?” Felicity questioned and Ava nodded her head. 

“Yeah, most people spend their lunch break outside or in the cafeteria,” Ava was a little nervous to look up, from her food, at Felicity. In Ava’s mind, all she could think about was the fact that Felicity was going to find out sooner rather than later that she didn’t actually have any friends, and then she will feed into the rumors that are spread about her and then she will leave eventually. 

Or even worse, she will find out that she’s gay and will do exactly what her parents did. She would look at her in disgust and never speak to her again. It’s not like she hid the fact that she’s a lesbian, she just didn’t tell everyone she met about it. Probably out of fear after the way, her own parents reacted to the news. 

“Are you sure it will be okay with your friends that I’m joining you?” Felicity suddenly looked nervous. 

“It’s just me don’t worry,” Ava offered her a smile to try and lighten the mood a little. But it didn’t work, Felicity’s face dropped a little at the revelation. 

“Oh, do you always eat alone?” 

“Uh- yeah, apparently I’m not exactly the easiest person to get along with, so people just don’t bother, I’m surprised you’ve stayed around for this long,” Ava forced a laugh at the last part, but Felicity just frowned. 

“Well I think you’re pretty great,” Felicity said with a soft smile, causing a light blush to make its way up Ava’s neck and onto her cheeks. 

Meanwhile, behind them, Sara was walking through the library with a slight skip in her step. She had been appointed the captain of the soccer team and she was excited to tell Ava about it. However, she came to a sudden halt when she noticed that Ava wasn’t sitting alone, she was sitting with a blonde girl who Sara had never seen before. She was about to go and join them when she saw the smile on Ava’s face paired with her bright red cheeks. She wasn’t completely sure what was going on between the two of them but Ava looked happier than she had seen her look in a while.

She turned on her heels and headed towards the cafeteria to eat lunch with her friends instead. She spotted the group immediately and sat down in the empty spot beside Zari. 

“There she is, el Capitan,” Jax said with a smirk on his face, Sara just looked at him with a glare. “Okay but seriously we need to celebrate or something, we should have a small get together this weekend,” he said and Sara just shrugged her shoulders. 

“It’s not that big of a deal, we don’t need to party over it,” Sara said as she bit into her sandwich. What she didn’t notice was the rest of her friends looking at each other with confused looks on their faces. 

“Are you kidding me? This is all you have talked about since you joined the soccer team and all of a sudden it’s not a big deal? You were happy about it this morning, what changed?” Zari questioned. 

“Zari’s right, also you love parties, last year you insisted that we have one because we had a snow day,” Nate said and Sara just rolled her eyes at him. 

“Okay fine! My house, Saturday night, does that work for everyone? My dad is away for the weekend on some training course and Laurel is going away for the weekend with Tommy so we have the house to ourselves,” Sara shrugged her shoulders and everyone perked up at the thought of the small party. 

“Should I bring the stache?” Behrad asked, referring to his selection of drugs. Usually, he wouldn’t take it when they had get-togethers at Sara’s house because Sara knew that Quentin would be pissed but he wasn’t going to be there so they could have a little more fun.

“Of course you should,” Sara paused for a second with her face scrunched up in thought, “wait I should probably ask Ava if she’s cool with this.”

“Why? She was fine when we were there last week this is just the same,” Nate said as he shoved some food into his mouth. 

“And she left to go and sit in her room alone last time, I would rather avoid making her feel as though she has to shut herself away again, if she is uncomfortable with it then we have to go to someone else’s house,” Sara said and everyone fell silent, they felt bad for Ava.

Sure, she’s a little uptight when it comes to things like school but that is just her way of showing that she cares. She wants to do the best that she possibly can at school so that she can go to her dream college and achieve her dreams that were kind of put on the back burner when her parents kicked her out. Now she’s just trying her best so that she can get a full-ride because that is the only way she can get to college now. 

The rest of the lunch Sara listened to Nate and Behrad animatedly talk about the get-together, she tried to join in but her mind was stuck on Ava and the girl she was in the library. There was a feeling in her stomach that felt suspiciously like jealousy, but she quickly pushed that away. There was absolutely no reason for her to be feeling jealous about the possibility that Ava was flirting with someone, they were only just getting to know one another again. 

“Sara?” she heard her name being called and she shook her head slightly to bring herself back to reality. 

“Huh?” 

She looked around her and the majority of the cafeteria had cleared out, only she, Zari, and Charlie were still at their table; with a few other people dotted around the room. 

“The bell rang like five minutes ago, are you okay? You’ve been pretty quiet,” Zari asked with a concerned look on her face. Sara was usually the one instigating the conversations and even when she wasn’t she was always heavily involved in them. So something was obviously wrong when Sara was quiet. 

“Yeah I’m good don’t worry, I’ve gotta go,” Sara grabbed her backpack and rushed off to her next class. 

The rest of the day she didn’t really pay attention to anything going on around her. Once school was over she had soccer practice and even then she was still a little zoned out, she couldn’t get the look on Ava’s face out of her head. She used to be the one who made her smile like that, it made her regret everything that happened to make them lose touch. 

When she got home from soccer practice she went straight upstairs to change, then she went to find Ava to ask her about Saturday but when she knocked on her bedroom door there was no reply. She headed downstairs and found Laurel and Tommy sat on the couch with some random show playing on the tv as they made out. 

“Sorry to interrupt this,” Sara gestured in their general direction with her hand and a disgusted look on her face, “but do you know where Ava is?”

“Yeah, she’s in the backyard studying or whatever with Felicity,” Laurel barely looked up at Sara as she spoke instead her eyes were trained on Tommy. 

“Felicity? Who is that?” 

“I don’t know Ava only introduced her as Felicity, she seems sweet though and I’m pretty sure Ava has a crush on her,” Laurel said and Sara just rolled her eyes in response. 

“They just met today how can she have a crush already,” Sara said before walking out of the room and towards the backyard to find Ava. 

The two of them were sitting pretty close as they looked down at the textbook. Ava was talking away about some math-related stuff and she looked so relaxed and happy talking about school work. A small smile worked its way onto Sara’s face at the sight, until Ava noticed her standing there. 

“Hey, are you okay? How was practice?” Ava questioned. 

“Yeah I’m good, practice was okay it was kind of weird being the captain of the team for the first time though it’s different, what are you guys doing?” 

“You made Captain?” Ava exclaimed, Sara nodded her head and Ava jumped up from her seat and rushed over to wrap her arms around the smaller blonde. “That’s amazing Sara,” Ava whispered. 

Sara melted into the hug but seconds later Ava pulled away. 

“Eh- it’s not really a big deal, you’re Felicity right?” Sara asked as she sat down at the table opposite her. 

“Yeah, Sara right? I’ve heard a lot about you, not in a bad way, it’s just Ava talks about you a lot, you seem cool-” Felicity stopped talking when she felt Ava lightly kick her under the table. Sara let out a soft chuckle when she noticed the blush on Ava’s face at the revelation. 

“Aves, my friends are coming over this weekend we’re having a small get together B is bringing his stache, I just wanted to make sure that it’s okay with you? You can join us and you too Felicity. But if you don’t want to then it’s totally fine Nate said we could go to his house,” Sara said and Ava nodded her head. 

“Of course it’s fine, it’s your house Sara you don’t need to ask me if it’s okay to have your friends over.”

“Okay, but it’s your house too Ava, the last thing I want to do is make you uncomfortable again.”

“I appreciate that I’ll stay out of your way. I don’t wanna crash your party, I doubt your friends would want me there,” Ava said before turning her attention back to the work in front of her. 

“You wouldn’t be crashing anything and besides I want you there I’m pretty sure they do too.” 

“Wait, I got a question: what is B’s stache? Also, do I need to bring anything with me?” Felicity interrupted and Sara smiled at the girl. She had only known her for like ten minutes but she could tell that she was going to grow to love her. 

“Just yourself, unless you have a specific drink or anything you like you could bring that but we’re providing the food and stuff,” Sara explained and Ava was completely ignoring the two of them now. “I’ll see you Saturday.”

With that, Sara walked away and left the two of them alone again. Ava’s head was still down working on her math homework. 

“You’re gonna go right?” Felicity questioned. 

Ava shook her head, “I don’t think so, her friends are loud and I would rather study or something.”

“I’ve known you for a day and all I have seen you do is schoolwork, I think you need to have a night off and relax a little,” Felicity said and Ava just looked at her with narrowed eyes. 

“I have to, if I don’t work hard I’m not gonna be able to go to college, and if I don’t get into college then everything I have planned out for my life is definitely not going to happen.” 

“Come on, one night won’t hurt. If you don’t like it we can leave and go up to your room or something. Please? I wanna make more friends and Sara absolutely only invited me because I’m with you right now and it will be awkward if you’re not there,” Felicity pleaded and she could see that she was slowly breaking Ava down. 

“Okay fine!” Ava blurted out and regretted it immediately when she thought about the fact that she would have to spend the night in a room with people who definitely didn’t want her there. 

Saturday rolled around and Sara and Ava were sitting in the living room waiting for everyone to arrive. 

“I’m glad you changed your mind, Aves, tonight is going to be fun!” Sara exclaimed and seconds later there was a knock at the door followed by the sound of voices entering the house. The whole group piled into the living room, most of them holding their own drinks and snacks. They each placed their stuff on the coffee table in the middle of the living room and found a place to sit. 

“Hey!” Ray said as he walked into the living room holding hands with Nora. “Oh hey, Ava.”

Nate and Behrad sat under the window with their backs against the wall. Zari, Charlie, Amaya sat on the empty couch opposite Sara and Ava. Jax took the spot beside Sara, Ray sat in the armchair with Nora on his lap. 

“Hi Ray,” Ava offered him a tight-lipped smile and her anxiety hit at full force. Her mind was about to go into overdrive, thinking about how they felt with Ava being there. 

“Hey, are you okay?” Sara asked, placing a hand on her knee to try and bring her out of her bubble. 

“Oh, yeah, I’m good, just a little nervous, I’ve never done anything like this before,” Ava said quietly, hoping that the others would hear her. 

“Okay, I’ll stay by your side the whole time if you want? Also if anyone makes you feel bad about not trying anything let me know and I’ll deal with them.”

“Thank you,” Ava whispered. 

It didn’t take long for everyone to arrive. Felicity was the last one to arrive, she was half an hour late and Ava was starting to get anxious. Luckily there was a knock on the door and Ava jumped up from the couch to answer it. 

“I’m so sorry, I couldn’t remember the address and my mom took a bunch of wrong turns and we ended up at the other side of the city somehow, but my mom bought wine for us,” Felicity held the bottle of rose up in front of her and wiggled her eyebrows. Ava froze for a second before forcing a smile onto her face. 

She had never drunk before, she had never needed a reason to or had the opportunity to, until that point. She cleared her throat and led Felicity into the living room. 

“Guys this is Felicity,” Sara said and Felicity lifted her hand up and offered them a slightly awkward wave. Everyone introduced themselves to her before she joined Ava on the couch. Ava quickly had grabbed some red solo cups from the coffee table and Felicity poured the wine into them. 

Ava drank in silence as she listened to the conversation between Felicity and Sara. The two had hit it off pretty well, but Ava expected them to, she thought that Felicity was just a person that everyone liked. Including all of Sara’s friends. It made Ava a little anxious, she sat further into the couch and couldn’t get the thought of Felicity realizing that she’s not actually that great and that she would just leave her to hang out with Sara and her friends, leaving her alone again, out of her head. 

“Ava do you want more wine?” Felicity asked as she poured some more for herself. Ava shook her head and held her cup up to signal that she still had some. Everyone around her was engaged in multiple different conversations. She sat staring down into her cup when she noticed a bag of gummy bears open on the coffee table. She leaned forward and grabbed a few without anyone noticing. She popped three into her mouth before leaning forward and grabbing a couple more. 

“Ava, wait!” She pulled away from the bag quickly when she heard Sara shout over the music. 

Her eyes went wide and she panicked slightly, she knew she should have asked before just taking them. “Sorry, I should have asked before I took one, I can go and buy some more for you? The store is only a block away-”

“No, it’s not that, it’s just-,” Sara paused and scrunched her face up slightly, “those are edibles, Ava how many did you eat,” the worry was clear on Sara’s face and Ava’s face dropped at the revelation and the panic overtook Ava’s eyes. 

“What? I ate three I think, yeah definitely three, is that bad? I’m gonna be okay right?” The questions tumbled out of Ava’s mouth and she shot up off of the couch before anyone had the chance to respond to her. 

“Behrad I told you to keep them to yourself! And why are they in a regular gummy bear packet?” Sara snapped and Behrad just shrugged his shoulders before him and Nate broke out into a fit of laughter. Sara should have known that they would be the first ones to be high. 

“My mom would kill me if she saw them, I had to disguise them some way.”

Sara just shot a glare in their direction and followed Ava. She found her in her bedroom with her laptop resting on her thighs, her face was scrunched up as she read something on the screen. 

“Ava? Are you okay?” Sara questioned softly as she sat down beside Ava. 

“I’m okay, I’m just googling to side effects and if it’s going to damage my brain,” Ava said not taking her eyes off of the screen once. Sara let out a chuckle and closed the laptop and placed it on Ava’s bedside table. 

“Ava look at me, it won’t damage your brain but you’re going to get very high, especially because it’s your first time taking them,” that did nothing to calm the panic on Ava’s face. “Relax, I’m going to be here the whole time by your side I promise. I can tell the others to go home if you want and we can just sit here and chill.”

“You should go back to your friends. I don’t want you to feel like you have to babysit me, I might just try and sleep it off if that’s possible?”

“I won’t feel like I’m babysitting you, and you are definitely not staying on your own so you have two options either I tell them to leave and we stay here or we both go back down there and enjoy the party, I will be beside you the entire time I promise.”

Ava didn’t really want to go back down where the others were, but she also didn’t want Sara to miss out. “Okay fine, we’ll go back downstairs, I just have one question.”

“Okay shoot.”

“What is going to happen when it kicks in?”

“It depends, it’s probably going to hit you hard because you have never done it before, but it’s different for everybody. You just need to stay calm and try to relax and you should be fine, but I will be there the whole time so don’t worry,” Sara explained and it seemed to help calm some of Ava’s nerves at the thought of Sara being there with her the whole time. 

Then there was a loud crash followed by the sound of Nate’s laughter. The two girls looked at each other with wide eyes. 

“Okay thank you, we should probably go back to your friends,” Ava said softly and Sara nodded her head in agreement. She got up from the bed and held her hand out for Ava to grab. The two of them walked back into the living room hand in hand to find Behrad laid on the floor with Nate laid beside him clutching their stomachs as they laughed. 

“What happened?” Sara questioned, she and Ava were standing by the doorway hand in hand.

“This dummy thought it would be a good idea to give Behrad a piggyback ride, B’s head hit the light and he fell off,” Jax explained, he looked at the two of them still laid on the floor, 

It didn’t take very long at all for the side effects to kick in. Ava started to get fidgety so she got up from the couch and walked over to the window. There was a bright glow coming from the moon in the dark night sky. Ava pressed her face up against the window and stared up at it. 

“I think, no wait- I’m pretty sure I can taste the moon,” Ava said with her nose still pressed against the window. Her comment earned some laughter from Felicity, Zari, and Sara. The others were too wrapped up in their own little worlds to even realize what Ava was doing. 

“Please tell me you’re getting all this on video,” Nora said with a laugh when Ava pulled her face away from the window, she wobbled slightly on her heels as she turned to look at them with a lopsided grin on her face.

“Of course, this is gold,” Zari chuckled, but Sara quickly pulled the phone from her best friend’s hands and stopped the recording. “Wha- Why’d you do that? That was hilarious.”

“This is Ava we’re talking about, she’s anxious enough as it is, I don’t want to upset her with videos of her while high, she didn’t even want to drink really and now she’s over there tasting the moon or whatever,” Sara explained, her eyes remained on Ava the entire time, to make sure that she was okay. 

The taller blonde had abandoned her position at the window and was now sitting on the floor with Nate and Behrad. The three of them were engaged in a conversation that Sara couldn’t quite hear. But, she did hear Ava’s amazed tone when she said, “wow this carpet is super soft, like a little sheep.” She couldn’t help the laughter that escaped her lips at the comment. She glanced over at the three of them and they were all running their hands over the carpet. 

“Come on, let me video this, it’s gold. If Ava wants me to delete them when she’s sober I will,” Zari pleaded and Sara glanced over at Ava for a second, she looked the most relaxed she had ever seen her in her entire life. In that moment she didn’t seem to have a single care in the world, she looked genuinely happy and the huge smile on her face brought warmth to Sara’s chest. 

“Okay fine,” Sara said and Zari took her phone back from Sara and began recording again.

Moments later Ava came bounding over to them like an overexcited puppy, she sat down beside Sara and looked at her through hooded eyelids with the same lopsided grin on her face. 

“I feel nice, this couch is so soft, has it always been this soft?” Ava questioned as she leaned back into it. “Your face is super pretty you know,” Ava paused and turned to Felicity before continuing, “she has so many freckles, look at them!”

A slight blush worked its way onto Sara’s face at the comments. But before Sara could do anything to try and cover her bright red cheeks, Ava leaned into her side; she gently grabbed onto Sara’s arm and wrapped it around herself. 

“Oh, are you making a video for your youtube? I watch your videos sometimes they’re good!” Ava exclaimed when she noticed Zari holding her phone up. 

“You do? I didn’t realize that you did anything other than schoolwork,” Zari teased and Ava tried her best to glare at her but she just ended up scrunching her nose up and looked cuter than annoyed. 

“Hey! I do stuff, Sara and I were going to watch a movie but you people crashed it and I had to watch it on my own, it was nice to not have to do something on my own for once,” Ava said and Zari’s teasing stance dropped at the last part, her heart ached slightly and the thought of ruining something that Ava had enjoyed. Before she could even begin to apologize on behalf of the group, Ava was no longer paying attention to the conversation instead her head was nestled into Sara’s chest and her arms were wrapped tightly around the smaller blonde’s waist.

“You’re comfy, I like cuddling you, I miss it,” Ava mumbled into Sara’s chest, only just loud enough for Sara to hear her. Sara tried to fight the soft smile that worked its way onto her face, along with the blush that was once again creeping up her neck. She looked up from Ava and saw Zari filming them, she looked into the camera with an annoyed look. 

“Okay, you can stop filming now,” Sara said with a glare in Zari’s direction. She stopped the recording and looked at her friend with a smirk on her face. “What?”

“You’re blushing,” Zari said with an amused look on her face. “I have never seen you blush, but when Ava cuddles with you suddenly you’re a blushing mess, do you have something to share with the class?”

“Shut up, it’s just hot in here, we should open a window or something,” Sara fumbled over her words slightly as Ava turned her head slightly so that her lips and nose were pressed against the bare skin on her neck. 

“It’s the room that’s hot, sure,” Zari raised an eyebrow at Sara who just continued to glare at her, but the glare didn’t really have the effect that Sara intended because the blush was still on her face.

Luckily for Sara, their conversation was interrupted when Nate gasped loudly, “we should go and get some chicken, I want some chicken.”

Everyone around the room agreed with him, except for Felicity because her mom had arrived to pick her up and Sara remained silent on the couch with Ava still wrapped up in her embrace. 

“Bye Felicity, I’m glad you came,” Sara lifted her left arm to wave at her. 

“Thank you for inviting me, I had fun, bye guys,” Felicity said and a chorus of goodbyes filled the room as the girl left the house. 

“Are you coming to get food with us?” Ray asked softly, trying not to wake Ava up.

Sara just shook her head in response, “no, I’m gonna try and get her to bed, I’ll see you guys tomorrow or something.”

Behind Ray, someone made a whip sound. She glared in the general direction that the sound came from but almost everyone had left the house. Behrad was knelt by the coffee table as he cleared all of his things into his backpack. He slipped it onto his shoulders before saying a quick goodbye and followed the others out of the house. 

Sara stayed on the couch as still as possible in an attempt to not wake Ava up. The two of them remained in that same position for around an hour, until Sara began to get slightly uncomfortable on the couch. She slipped away from Ava and tried to figure out how she was going to get Ava upstairs to her room. She attempted to lift her but Ava was a little too tall for her to carry upstairs. 

While she was trying to figure it out she heard the front door open and close, followed by hushed voices and the sound of keys locking the door. 

“Oh hey, what are you doing home? I thought you were going to be gone the whole weekend,” Sara said softly when Laurel and Tommy walked into the living room. 

“We were but Tommy got called into work for tomorrow,” Laurel rolled her eyes and behind her, Tommy didn’t look too pleased about having to come home either. Laurel glanced around the room with a raised eyebrow but her expression turned into that of a concerned one when she noticed Ava passed out on the couch. “Is Ava okay?”

“Yeah, she um-” Sara paused and pinched the bridge of her nose before continuing, “she accidentally ate some edibles.”

“Accidentally? How did she accidentally eat some edibles?” Laurel exclaimed, her voice raising an octave or two.

“B had them in a bag on the coffee table and she thought they were regular gummy bears, she’s fine she just needs to sleep it off, I just don’t know how to get her upstairs.”

“I’ve got her,” Tommy said as he stepped forward and effortlessly lifted her into his arms bridal style. 

The sisters followed him upstairs, he placed Ava onto her bed and left the room. 

“You can’t tell dad about this,” Sara blurted out before Laurel left the room. 

“Of course I won’t just make sure she’s okay, you should probably stay with her tonight. Night Sara,” Laurel said and left the room. 

Sara looked at Ava with a soft sigh. She managed to get Ava settled under the covers, causing her to stir slightly in the process. 

“Thank you for tonight Sara, I had fun. I haven’t had fun like that since like middle school, it felt good. I wanna feel like this forever!” Ava mumbled as she moved to get herself comfortable, “you know when we stopped speaking I was so upset, and then it got worse at home I think my mom thought that because I didn’t have you anymore that she and my dad could do and say whatever they liked because nobody was ever going to find out, but it’s okay now because they can’t do that anymore and I have you back.”

Sara froze at Ava’s words, she had no idea that things at home had been worse than Sara had ever expected and she had to face it alone. She felt awful because if she hadn’t been such an idiot at then Ava might not have gone through what she had. 

“Ava, I think tomorrow we need to talk through a lot of things,” Sara said softly as she laid down beside Ava, staring up at the ceiling with her hands resting on her stomach. She waited for a response from the taller girl but instead was just met with soft snoring sounds. “Okay, night, night Aves.”


	4. four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That night Sara hadn’t slept at all. Her mind was racing at a hundred miles an hour coming up with multiple different scenarios of what she should have done differently in regards to her friendship with Ava. At some point in the night, she had managed to convince herself that everything that had happened with Ava and her parents had been her fault. But then she shook that thought from her head, the last thing Ava needed was her projecting her insecurities onto her, she needed someone to just be there for her in a way that Sara hadn’t been for a long time. 
> 
> or
> 
> The aftermath of the night before and Ava and Sara have a much-needed talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW// mentions of abuse
> 
> This chapter gets a little rough towards the end when Ava is talking with Sara about her parents.
> 
> Also, I apologize for the very late update, it's been almost a month since I last updated, I've been busy with moving house and university work, but hopefully, we should be back to weekly updates, I hope you enjoy!!:))

That night Sara hadn’t slept at all. Her mind was racing at a hundred miles an hour coming up with multiple different scenarios of what she should have done differently in regards to her friendship with Ava. At some point in the night, she had managed to convince herself that everything that had happened with Ava and her parents had been her fault. But then she shook that thought from her head, the last thing Ava needed was her projecting her insecurities onto her, she needed someone to just be there for her in a way that Sara hadn’t been for a long time. 

Before she knew it the sunlight was filtering through the gaps in the blind and the birds were chirping away outside of the window. Making it even more impossible for her to get some sleep. 

She was about to get out of bed and workout or something when Ava rolled over and wrapped an arm around her waist and nuzzled her face into the crook of Sara’s neck. She froze. She laid as still as possible only relaxing a little when she noticed that Ava was still asleep. 

They stayed like that until Ava began to stir in her sleep, Sara quickly closed her eyes and pretended that she was asleep. She heard Ava let out a yawn and untangled herself from Sara, followed by the feeling of the bed dipping from Ava climbing over her and leaving the room. She only opened her eyes when she heard the bathroom door lock, she let out a deep breath and scrambled out of bed. 

“Jesus Christ Sara! You scared the shit out of me,” Tommy clutched at his chest as he stood shirtless in the doorway to Laurel’s bedroom. 

She looked at him with a sheepish smile before muttering an apology and continued to rush downstairs. She moved around the kitchen and made herself a bowl of cereal, she sat down at the kitchen table and scrolled through her phone. Shortly after she finished eating Ava appeared in the kitchen with a shy smile on her face. 

They hadn’t even spoken yet but just from her body language, Sara could tell that Ava felt a little embarrassed by last night's antics. Her hands were tightly clasped together behind her back and she was doing everything she possibly could to avoid making eye contact with Sara. 

“Good morning, did you sleep okay?” Sara asked and Ava just nodded her head before turning to search through the cupboards to find something to eat. 

Ava soon joined her at the table with her plate of toast, they sat in a slightly awkward silence. Sara wanted to bring up what Ava had said before she fell asleep so bad, she just didn’t know how to. They needed to talk about it, for Ava’s sake. She had clearly never spoken about it with anyone before and it wasn’t healthy for her to keep it bottled up. But, she also didn’t want to upset Ava by bringing it up, because what if she wasn’t ready to talk about it. 

“I’m sorry about last night,” Ava said quietly, still staring down at her untouched food.

“Sorry? What are you sorry about?” 

“I ruined your night, you were supposed to have fun with your friends and you got stuck taking care of me because I accidentally got high, I-”

“Ava, stop. You didn’t ruin anything, I promise. And I didn’t get stuck doing anything, I chose to take care of you because you’re my friend and I wanted to make sure that you were okay,” Sara said and Ava’s head shot up to look at Ava when she said that the two of them were friends. 

“We’re friends?” She asked with her head tilted to the side slightly, like a confused puppy. 

“Of course we are, what did you think this was?” Sara asked with a soft smile on her face when Ava ducked her head slightly to try and hide the blush on her cheeks. “But, there is something I wanted to talk about.”

Ava lifted her head and a nervous expression worked its way onto her face. “Okay, what do you want to talk about?” She knew exactly what Sara wanted to talk about and it wasn’t exactly something she wanted to get into that early in the morning. But, if she put it off then Sara would just want to talk about it some other time and she wouldn’t drop it until they talked about it. 

“Last night you-”

“Ah, it’s nice to see you awake, how are you feeling this morning Ava?” Tommy asked as he and Laurel entered the kitchen. Both of them were still in their pajamas, which was a little confusing considering the only reason they were back home was so that Tommy could go to work. 

“I feel good thank you, I was exhausted last night,” Ava panicked a little, she fumbled over her words slightly before looking over to Sara. She had no idea if Laurel and Tommy knew the real reason she was passed out on the couch, and if they did would they tell Quentin. She would definitely be in trouble if he found out about it, and that is the last thing she wanted. 

“Relax Aves they know and don’t worry my dad won’t find out,” Sara quickly reassured her when she noticed the panic in Ava’s eyes. 

“Are you sure? I don’t want to upset him.”

“Pretty sure you could never upset him, he adores you,” Laurel said and Ava’s cheeks flushed a bright pink color. 

Laurel and Tommy worked around each other in the kitchen to put their own breakfast together. Meanwhile, Ava had barely touched her own breakfast, instead, she was just taking small nibbles of it, until she ended up throwing it in the trash and silently left the room. 

“Is she okay?” Laurel asked once she noticed that Ava had left the room. They joined Sara at the kitchen table and the younger Lance sister just shrugged her shoulders. 

“I don’t know, we were about to talk about it, but then you guys came into the kitchen. Wait shouldn’t you be at work?” Sara questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“Turns out they managed to solve the problem themselves, so they don’t need me anymore,” Tommy grumbled, it was clear on his face that he wasn’t too pleased that they had to come back from their mini-vacation for nothing. Sara glanced over at her sister who had a matching expression on her face. 

“We’re going to the beach for the day so you two can talk it through without being interrupted,” Laurel said and Sara nodded her head. She quickly finished her breakfast and headed upstairs, she heard the stream of water from the shower as she passed the bathroom, with Ava in there she took the opportunity to go and workout. 

She was halfway through her workout when Laurel poked her head around the doorway into the garage to let her know that they were leaving. They said quick goodbyes and Sara carried on with her workout. She pushed herself harder than usual to try and keep her mind off of the night before and how cuddly Ava was with her. 

It didn’t really work though, how could she forget that. It made her think of how they used to be around one another. The weekly sleepovers where they would just talk all night about anything and everything that came to their minds, while they were wrapped up in one another’s embrace. 

However, it wasn’t just the fact that Ava got so cuddly that she couldn’t get out of her mind. It was also the fact that she said that things got worse at home for her. She kicked herself over it, she never should have left Ava, or she should have at least told somebody about Ava’s parents, but the other girl made her promise not to tell anyone about it; and who was she to break a promise with Ava?

She quickly shook the thoughts from her head and finished up her workout. Luckily Ava had finished in the bathroom so she hopped in the shower. The second she stepped into the stream of water, she tilted her head back and just let it run over her. Her muscles relaxed immediately, she stood with the water just rolling over her body for a few minutes before washing herself. 

It wasn’t long until she was back in her own bedroom with her hair was tied up in a damp bun on top of her head, and she was in proper clothes. She debated with herself for a moment, whether or not she should go and speak to Ava, but in the end, she decided that it was probably necessary for them to talk things out. So that they could begin to move forward with their friendship, but mainly because Ava needed to talk to someone about her parents, and Sara was pretty sure that she was the only one who Ava had ever spoken to about it. 

She also wanted to be there to help her process her feelings about the whole situation because since she had moved in with the Lance family she had only really fully let her feelings out about it on the first night she slept there. Since then she had just claimed that she was fine, but even after all this time Sara could see right through her, the way her smiles never quite reach her eyes and she seems to be hiding in her room and studying a lot more than even Ray would. 

“Ava? Can we talk?” Sara asked softly through Ava’s bedroom door. 

The taller blonde didn’t respond, instead, she just opened the door and stepped slightly to the side, to let Sara walk into the room. She sat down on the bed and Ava joined her after she quickly cleared some papers off of the bed and placed them in a neat little pile on her desk. 

“What do you wanna talk about?” Ava’s voice wavered slightly, she knew exactly what Sara wanted to talk about and it wasn’t going to be an easy conversation at all. 

“Last night you said after we stopped speaking that things at home got worse, Ava did they hurt you?” Sara’s voice went softer than Ava had ever heard it at the last part. Her usually bright blue eyes were dark and full of concern. 

Ava ducked her head slightly and stared down at her hands that were clasped together in her lap. She took a shaky breath, before looking up from her hands, she avoided any eye contact with Sara; opting to look at the wall behind the smaller blonde instead. 

“Once.”

Her eyes shot back down to look at her hands and Sara could see the tears welling up in her eyes, she was trying so hard to keep them from spilling over, but the second she looked back up at Sara they tumbled down her cheeks. Her hand flew up to wipe them away, hoping Sara didn’t see them but she did and within seconds her arms were wrapped around Ava’s shoulders. She buried her face in the crook of Sara’s neck and wrapped her own arms around the smaller girl's waist. 

“Oh, sorry I got your shirt wet,” Ava pointed to the small wet patch on Sara’s shoulder from her tears. 

“It’s okay,” Sara said with a slight chuckle before her expression turned serious again. “Did you tell anybody about it?” 

Ava shook her head. “I had nobody to talk to, and even if I did have anyone to tell it would have just made it worse.” She paused for a moment and blinked back the tears that were once again forming in her eyes. “It, um- it was after we stopped speaking, it was the day we got our report cards back in ninth grade, all of my grades slipped and I got a C in one of my classes. It was a tough year, but they didn’t care, I tried to explain myself but my dad thought I was talking back to him and he hit me and told me he wasn’t going to speak to me until I got my grades back up. He didn’t speak to me for the entire summer, and my mom didn’t really speak to me either; they just kind of pretended that I wasn’t there.” Ava broke down into floods of tears, Sara tried her best to console her but she had tears rolling down her own cheeks. 

The taller girl took some deep breaths and carried on talking, “that was- I- it was the first time I considered ending it,” she paused again, and Sara’s heart skipped a beat. While Ava didn’t explicitly say it, she knew exactly what she meant. “I had no friends and my own parents didn’t even want to know me at that point, so I just thought why not, nobody would miss me. But I couldn’t do it, I was too scared because things had to get better and I guess they have, I have people who actually care about me now. But it was so hard Sara, they only just started speaking to me again a few weeks before they kicked me out and even then it was just the odd hello, and questions about my grades, they never once asked how I was, they knew I had nobody and yet they treated me like that.”

Sara said nothing, she didn’t know what to say. It was hard to hear how they treated their own daughter. She couldn’t imagine how it felt for Ava, she wrapped her arms around the girl and held her tight. Ava shook slightly against her as tears rolled down her cheeks once again. 

“Aves we need to report them, we can’t let them get away with this, I can tell my dad and-”

“No!” Ava snapped, her face dropped into an apologetic expression when she realized how she had just spoken to Sara. “Sorry, you’re just trying to help but it won’t help anything, it will just make it worse, they always promised to make my life a living hell if I ever told anyone about what they did and I’m learning to be happy again I don’t want them to come back into my life and ruin that. Please don’t tell anyone, especially your dad,” Ava’s eyes were round and shiny with tears as she pleaded with Sara. 

Sara had an internal debate with herself, over whether she should respect Ava’s wishes and keep it between them, or do the right thing and report her parents. However, all it took was one glance at Ava’s soft pout and she was holding her pinky finger out between her and Ava. the taller blonde looked at it in confusion for a moment, before realizing that she was pinky promising, she quickly wrapped her own pinky finger around Sara’s and shook their hands slightly. 

After that Sara went a little quieter than usual. Before she looked up at Ava, opening and closing her mouth a few times as if she was trying to find the right words to fully express herself. “I’m sorry!” Sara blurted out.

Ava tilted her head to the side slightly, like a confused puppy, “what are you sorry for?”

“For how I treated you in freshman year. I was awful, I knew you were terrified about going to high school and I still left you, it was such a shitty thing to do. I’ve regretted it every day since I should have stuck by your side and maybe things wouldn’t have been so hard for you.” 

“It was hard, and it sucked seeing you making all these new friends while I was left behind, and nobody wanted to be friends with me and I had no idea why I guess I’m a little too uptight for people. But, I got over it, that’s what happens when people go to high school they very rarely stay friends with the people they went to middle school with. It was still awful, it still is I guess, not so much now that I have you and Felicity, I’m surprised she’s stuck around for as long as she has, but people still kind of avoid me and they think I don’t notice the disappointment on their faces when they’re forced to work with me in class but I do. I try not to let it get to me but it hurts.”

Sara’s heart dropped at Ava’s words, in her eyes Ava was perfect in every way. She’s smart, funny, and has a heart of gold, she had no idea why people didn’t like Ava; and it made her angry that people made Ava feel that way. 

“Ava you are one in a million, anybody would be lucky to know you. You are extraordinary. The people at school are dicks, and are probably incredibly intimidated by your brains, as they should be you’re like the smartest person I’ve ever met,” Sara paused for a moment before she spoke again, “you should sit with me at lunch.”

“Really? Are you sure it would be okay with your friends?” the nerves were clear in Ava’s voice and Sara wanted to punch anybody who had ever made Ava feel as though her presence wasn’t fully welcomed wherever she went. 

“Of course! They love you, especially Zari she thought that you were hilarious last night.”

Ava’s cheeks blushed slightly at that statement. She let out a soft chuckle and wiped her hand over her face in an attempt to hide the blush, it was also an attempt to hide the giant smile that was working its way onto her face. Her smile had sort of a chain reaction because Sara was looking at her with a lopsided grin on her face. They just sat looking at one another with goofy smiles on their faces, until Sara cleared her throat. 

“How about we make some popcorn, grab some candy, and watch Love, Simon? To the end this time,” Sara suggested and Ava nodded her head immediately, “okay, let’s go.”

They put the popcorn kernels in the microwave, while they were cooking Sara dug through the cupboards to find some good candy for them to eat. Once everything was ready they put the popcorn and candy into bowls and headed up to Sara’s bedroom, they put the movie on the TV and settled down on the bed. 

They sat with their backs resting against the headboard when the movie began there was enough space between them for at least another person. However, as the movie went on the space between them began to dissipate and by the end of the movie, they had both migrated to a laying position. Ava had fallen asleep and had instinctively curled into Sara’s side with her head resting on Sara’s chest. Sara moved her arm, slowly, from where it was trapped under Ava and wrapped it around Ava, careful not to wake the other girl. 

They remained in that position, Sara laid as still as a rock, it felt nice to have Ava curled against her like that. It made her feel warm and fuzzy inside, which was something that she had not felt in a long, long time. 

She was quickly brought out of her thoughts when there was a soft knock on her door, followed by Quentin stepping into the room. He looked exhausted like he usually did after every training weekend. 

“Hey baby, did you have a good weekend?” He whispered when he realized that Ava was sleeping. 

“Mhmm, it was good, we just hung out. How was your weekend?” She asked.

“Awful, there were a few power-hungry kids, fresh out of high-school. They didn’t make it through the first day,” Quentin rolled his eyes slightly, thinking back to the weekend. “How was Ava this weekend? She seemed happy when she got home from school on Friday with that girl, Felicity was it?” Sara nodded her head. 

“She was good, she and Felicity were with us yesterday. Everyone came over, it was fun,” Sara said, not going into too much detail. Mainly because she is the worst liar in the world and if Quentin asked more questions then she would probably let it slip that Ava accidentally got high, and that would not go down well. 

“Okay, I’ll leave you two, to it,” Quentin said with a soft smile on his face as he looked at the two of them.

It was the most relaxed and content he had seen his daughter in a while. He had a suspicious feeling that there was something going on between the two of them, but he didn’t want to pry, he knew Sara would talk to him when she was ready. So instead he gave them one last look and left the room. 

After he left, Sara laid down fully, adjusting Ava slightly in the process. The taller girl now had her head buried in Sara’s neck and Sara’s arms were securely wrapped around Ava’s waist, holding her close to her. She let out a content sigh and just basked in the warm feeling of Ava pressed against her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I hoped you enjoyed it and as always let me know what you thought in the comments :))


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